K-9 Petfoods, an all-black female-owned company, officially opened its pet food production facility – jointly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) – in the Western Cape on Friday.
According to a statement issued earlier this morning by the dti, K-9 is one of the first black female-owned companies to have benefited from the Black Industrialists Programme (BIP), an incentive scheme aimed at funding and supporting black industrialists.
Speaking at the launch, K-9 managing director, Fazielah Allie, said that the company had been able to secure R20 million in funding from the dti, as well as an additional R31 million from the IDC, to expand operations and purchase machinery.
“These developments will go a long way in ensuring that we are able to meet the production requirements of Woolworths’, with whom we have a partnership agreement to supply our range of products. Our company now occupies a state-of-the-art 3 600sqm facility - and we have managed to boost our workforce from 11 to 24 employees, with a target of 35 by 2018,” she added.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, pointed to the partnership agreement between K-9 and Woolworths as one of the positive examples of how inclusive growth and localisation of industry should work in the country.
He added that the dti’s investment into K-9 would make an “immensely” positive contribution to economic transformation in the agro-processing sector while creating direct employment.
